Actor David McCallum played Illya Kuryakin in the TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E., though here he’s promoting Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service at the 2009 Monte Carlo Television Festival, June 10, 2009 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

A bodyguard tries to protect a not-very-worried-looking Tom Cruise from his fans, at the Swedish premiere of Jack Reacher, December 11, 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Ivan da Silva/Getty Images)

Various online sources say that Tom Cruise is “in talks” to play Napoleon Solo in a movie version of the 1960s U.S. TV show The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The first news about the proposed film came from Deadline.com. Several other entertainment/news outlets linked to the Deadline report, with some adding opinions or more snippets of info.
Tom Cruise, yeah, OK, fine, but what I want to know, and I’m sure I’m not alone, is who will play Illya Kuryakin?
Nobody asked! What is it with you people?

Tom Hardy was the first actor who came to my mind. He’s already played a spy, and a blond one at that, in Tinker tailor Soldier Spy. (I didn’t know it was a wig until I read some complaints from his fans.)

The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) was a smug guy who thought of himself as god’s gift to women, and the scriptwriters wrote him that way, too, but many young girls and women preferred the shaggy-haired Kuryakin, played by Scottish actor David McCallum. Even Wikipedia says so!

“Although originally conceived as a minor character, Kuryakin, played by David McCallum, became an indispensable part of the show, achieving co-star status with the show’s lead Napoleon Solo played by Robert Vaughn. McCallum’s blond good looks and the enigmatic persona he created for the character garnered him a huge following of female fans. Such was the popular hysteria surrounding him that he was referred to in newspaper reports at the time as ‘the blond Beatle’ or the ‘fifth Beatle’. While playing Kuryakin, McCallum received more fan mail than any other actor in the history of MGM. “Much of the character’s appeal was based on what was ambiguous and enigmatic about him. . . .McCallum summed up the character in commenting ‘No one knows what Illya Kuryakin does when he goes home at night.’ “

Anyone in the writing game is advised to not to take Wikipedia too seriously. The fact that content can be edited by the general public does not guarantee accuracy, as some seem to think. But the info above sounds about right to me!
Further testimony to the continuing popularity of Kuryakin/McCallum can be found all over YouTube. (I haven’t given links because that might lead to those videos being taken down.)

To backtrack a bit for those who don’t know anything about The Man From U.N.C.L.E.:

The Guardian’s Ben Child writes: “The original Man from UNCLE TV show, which aired from 1964 to 1968, saw Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as members of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, the former playing American spy Napoleon Solo and the latter a Russian agent called Illya Kuryakin. It was one of a number of espionage shows that flourished after the success of the early James Bond films, and 007 creator Ian Fleming was among those involved in its conception.”

“The show joins other 60s spy series that have made it to the big screen, including Mission Impossible, Get Smart and The Avengers. Of these, only the first has proved to have any legs in multiplexes.”

Most readers who commented on the Guardian web site said “Noooooooooo.”
Or words to that effect. One also said:“Please just don’t do it. I remember me and my school mates watching the programme so carefully, we could quote almost the entire script the next day. Sigh … If only the school work had been so easy to learn – maybe it would have been if taught by Ilya Kuryakin.”

I think Tom Hardy would be great in this role, and thought so before I saw his name suggested in a comment on Deadline.com. Someone else suggested our very own Canuck star Ryan Gosling. Maybe, might work. I still think Hardy would be best.
Someone else suggested Daniel Craig, but he is way too craggy (so to speak) if you ask me.
Someone commented that David McCallum himself does not look that much different these days, if you squint a bit.
(I don’t watch much TV, so did not realize that he has been playing a pathologist, nicknamed Ducky, on the U.S. TV show NCIS since 2003.)
BTW: David McCallum was also in the World War II movie The Great Escape, from 1963.
Who would you like to see as Illya Kuryakin?
Please feel free to write in the comment box below.

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